Wasn't it just Monday that I was mentioning Steve Novick's knack for getting media attention and the chance to put his message forward? Jeff Alworth from our friends over at BlueO commented that Jeff Merkley had been in front of the same "two dozen Democrats in a Chinese restaurant" just a couple weeks earlier, implying I suppose equal love in Douglas County--but that wasn't the story; it was Novick's ability to get media out of it. Where is Merkley's story on the visit in the Roseburg News Review? (I was unable to find one; if there is please tell me... edit: when it helps their guy, I guess the Merkley campaign is willing to communicate info to me after all--consider me corrected.).
Certainly Merkley does get some press; he is, after all, usually mentioned first in any primary or general election story, often to the exclusion of Novick (but notably less so lately), and is always referred to as the presumed frontrunner. But the stories about Jeff Merkley, the candidate, and his run for Democratic nominee have lately been...eh. Stu Rothenberg is a bit of an old school thinker, but he took time to punch at Merkley. Dave Steves at the Register Guard then picked up the story as well, and even the Albany Herald got in on that one.
Then we discussed the evolution of Chris Cillizza, WaPo Senate pundit, who has gone from assuming the DSCC had picked the best candidate to one who is muddled now on the situation because it appears the coronation may not occur as scheduled. And this week they once again took a U-turn on the professional campaign highway, and got a bit of road rage trying to talk their way out of the ticket. Or thicket, whickever you prefer. {more}
When Mitch Greenlick and Mary Nolan had their own moment of drunk cobra striking on Novick, I called the Merkley campaign to see if the campaign had known of or approved the letter before it was given to BlueO. (We found out later that it had). Not only was that information refused, Russ Kelley and I spent very nearly half an hour arguing about the pace of HJM 9 (the Iraq withdrawal resolution in the House), much of it Kelley fulminating like nobody's business.
About halfway through I started wondering, "Why is he this bent out of shape? If me and my little community aren't worth the pixels we're printed on under the steamroller of inevitability, why is he giving it this much attention?" The scene decribed by Dick Hughes, editor at the Salem Statesman-Journal, seems awfully familiar somehow:
Jeff Merkley’s U.S. Senate campaign doesn’t get the item that was posted farther down. His press secretary thinks it was a cheap shot by our pointing out that his memo referred to Columbia, when he meant Colombia. He noted that he sent a corrected version. (He did that after I informed him of the error.)
He doesn’t understand why it’s relevant. So I’ll try again.
A. It demonstrates that the campaign isn’t too savvy about foreign affairs. That’s like candidate George W. Bush’s lack of knowledge about who's who among foreign leaders.
B. It’s one more misstep by the Jeff Merkley campaign. This is the same campaign that dumbly rented an out-of-state RV – with Washington plates – to launch his campaign. What were they thinking?
C. The Merkley campaign has to get a much thicker skin. I would have expected the press secretary to call us up and say, “My bad. You got us.” Instead, as I write this, he’s spent 27 minutes on the phone – and counting – trying to argue that it was unfair to knock the campaign for his confusing Columbia and Colombia.
Two things that have got to be Press Secretary 101 are:
1) Always remember you are sending this out to a bunch of people who were forced to sit through grammar and style classes and all have MLA guides sitting on their desks. Maybe it counts to no one else but teachers, but it counts to journalists and you have to know your audience. It's an easy mistake; that's why you gotta proofread for mistakes. 2) Reporters will always want to take the message away from you--give you coverage all right, just not necessarily the topic you submitted your release on. They will look for things that distract from the message, and make THAT the story.
Obviously this was a perfect storm of 1) and 2), and that resulted in the original blog column. Funny, ha ha, silly move, kinda embarrassing. Hughes is exactly right--the confident, well-tuned campaign laughs it off and says something like "Well, maybe we were daydreaming a little bit about the mighty Columbia Gorge or Columbia County or even our sweet new Columbia Sportswear snow jacket. But unlike Gordon Smith, we're IN Oregon, thinking ABOUT Oregon."
And so you have to wonder about what kind of campaign is being run, if not a confident, well-tuned one. The "thin-skinned campaign" narrative is starting to write itself, unfortunately--because that's what this episode sounds like, and it's frankly what we've seen for much of the campaign, in between endorsements and rest stop travelogues.
And I have to tell you, thin-skinned is nothing I want in the general election against Gordon Smith. Will Merkley campaign staff be calling up Fred Stickel to complain about missteps reported in the Oregonian, and jawing at him for half an hour? Will the unrelenting unfairness of RC Hammond and the GOP Attack Squad be cause for much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments in the name of fair play?
I just don't want to worry about whether the Democratic nominee will seriously take it to Smith, and not even slow down when they got to Washington. At times Merkley can't even seem to get going--Partygoers are still waiting for the reschedule of the campaign HQ (2nd half?) Kickoff Party. Watch the mails for the invite on that one--but double check the spelling in the address.
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Obviously this was a perfect storm of 1) and 2), and that resulted in the original blog column. Funny, ha ha, silly move, kinda embarrassing. Hughes is exactly right--the confident, well-tuned campaign laughs it off and says something like "Well, maybe we were daydreaming a little bit about the mighty Columbia Gorge or Columbia County or even our sweet new Columbia Sportswear snow jacket. But unlike Gordon Smith, we're IN Oregon, thinking ABOUT Oregon." 
